Night 64: Sun Room

[overlimit]

[from here]

There was no sign of other patients in the Sun Room, meaning it was possible that Rita and her companion were the first. That was just what Rita didn’t want. It meant she couldn’t know if any monsters or brainwashed patients were lurking around, and if they were, she and the old man were going to get their full attention.

“Don’t make too much noise,” she cautioned Skulduggery in a whisper. “You never know what could be hiding in here.” Unfortunately, their flashlights probably drew plenty of attention too, which meant they needed to be fast. Treading lightly yet quickly, Rita started toward the entrance to the library, watching the darkness for signs of danger as she moved.

Comments

[deathrattling]

Hair swept and snaked over Gren's form, tangling with itself and his clothes to grasp him with an ever-firmer grip. The face in the wall pushed through, borne on a column of even more hair, bobbing with loose -- almost mechanical, unnatural -- jerks as she rested her chin on his shoulder. Almost affectionate, close enough for the rot and the death-rattle to ingrain into his senses, she tilted her merciless stare as if to watch Hakkai's efforts.

One dark eyebrow quirked: the expression shifting nearly to confusion for just a moment. Then another hand burst forth from the masses enveloping Gren and wrapped around his torso, clutching with dead flesh against the living, sinking his shoulders and back into what should have been soothingly-patterned wallpaper.

And the hair continued to wrap him in a living cocoon -- crawling with a life of its own, it wound around Hakkai's fingers where they touched Gren and then coiled up around his wrist, threatening to bind them together for good.

[vinesofregret]

Trying to pull Gren out wasn't working, and at the rate this was going, he was going to get trapped too. He tugged one hand free of the dark wisps - which, he was starting to realize, was hair - and aimed a quick punch at the face in the wall. Hopefully it would be enough of a distraction for Gren to pull free.

[stellarregions]

"Get out of here, Hakkai." He didn't raise his voice, but he was resolute.

It was no use. Just no use. He could keep struggling, but he could hardly move, and at this point, they were both going to be dragged away if Hakkai stayed and tried to free him.

It was as if death and the weight of all his past sins were dragging him down into darkness, into an oblivion that part of him still craved after all this time.